Same Sex Marriage Senate Battles Heat Up

By Michael Boyajian

Making good on their promise to roll out of the pubs and into the streets gay rights activists are taking the battle for same sex marriage to the senate ballot box.  Some races are a long shot but there are many that have a chance of knocking out opponents of same sex marriage.

Senate Candidate Launches Campaign of New Ideas

By Michael Boyajian

Didi Barrett will make it official as she declares her candidacy against State Senator Stephen Saland in the Hudson Valley’s 41^st Senate District on this sunny Wednesday in April.

New York’s Secession Talk

By Michael Boyajian

There is a lot of talk from various windbags about certain states like Texas seceding from the United States of America apparently ignorant of the fact that 600,000 on both sides gave their lives in the Civil War.

On Sliwa

By Michael Boyajian

The first time I encountered Curtis Sliwa the founder of the Guardian Angels was at a Rudy Giuliani political event and all the star gazed Young Republicans from New York and around the country were blindly brushing passed the outstretched hands of local Republican leaders as they headed to shake Sliwa’s hand.

The Hegemony of the Cats

By Michael Boyajian

We have three cats in our household.  When we first moved to the Hudson Valley we had just two, Winston and Brigid who go everywhere together like two peas in a pod.

Then one day a few weeks before the start of winter we rescued a third cat, Malachy.  He had been abandoned.  We tried to acclimate him with the other two cats but it did not work out.  Malachy loves humans but does not like other cats so we have to keep him in a separate room.  The room is small, and he became an outdoor cat after his abandonment, so we occasionally have to let him out into the yard knowing the risks involved but aware that it would be cruel to keep him locked up in a small room.

The Roses of FDR and Obama

By Michael Boyajian

The Poughkeepsie Journal recently reported that scores of people braved a frigid cold winter day to attend a graveside ceremony commemorating FDR’s 128^th birthday.  This was a testament to the enduring legacy of one America’s greatest presidents. 

The Armenian Genocide: A Biblical Story?

By Michael Boyajian

My friend Harlan thinks about the Holocaust and is able to live with what happened by thinking of it in Biblical terms.  Millions were killed but now the Jewish people have a homeland, Israel, for the first time since Roman times two thousand years ago.  A modern day Passover story is how he describes it.

The Third Testament

By Michael Boyajian

I know I am going out on a limb of controversy here but I feel compelled to go forward.  There is much talk among Christians of a second coming of Jesus Christ or a savior.  Well, what if the savior came but it wasn’t one Christ but eight and each was crucified.  For arguments sake let’s just say they were saviors or prophets rather than Jesus.

The Hour of the Deer

By Michael Boyajian

Dusk for the city dweller is a time between night and day when existence takes on a mellow air free from the frustrations of the work day.  It is a time for decompression before the beginning of evening.  But it is a different feeling for the suburbanite for it is the hour of the deer.  This is the time when deer come out to forage for food and frolic often leaping in front of your moving car causing total damage.

Same Sex Marriage Election Victory

By Michael Boyajian

After the New York State Senate’s failure last year to pass the same sex marriage bill Marriage Equality New York and other LGBT groups vowed to field candidates sympathetic to the measure.  The gay community had its first opportunity with a special election in Queens, New York recently for the seat held by disgraced Senator Hiram Monserrate, a vocal opponent of same sex marriage.  MENY supported Jose Peralta who handily won the race against Monserrate and a Republican running up huge numbers.

The Injustice of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade: A Postmortem

By Michael Boyajian

There was a time that although I am not Irish I would exuberantly celebrate the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York.   With spirits high from the pending arrival of Spring I would wear green, work the governor’s brunch before the parade, watch the parade with my wife up by the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we would enjoy a fine lunch of corn beef and cabbage followed that very evening by another meal of corn beef and cabbage.  All day I would get choked up by the passing bag pipers and elderly Irishmen would come up to my wife and say she had the map of Ireland on her face.

Saving the Tuba Player

By Michael Boyajian

The proposed Obama Administration education reforms make for a good start but do not go far enough at least in New York State.  The simplest way to level the education playing field and equalize the system is to revamp the school financing formula. 

Rising Tide for Same Sex Marriage

By Michael Boyajian

The Fishkill Democratic Committee gathered recently for its monthly meeting and to hear from Didi Barrett who is expected to run against New York State Senator Stephen Saland an opponent of same sex marriage.  Didi Barrett is important to the gay community because she is a candidate who has pledged to support same sex marriage and because she is the first of many candidates who will ultimately be running this year in support of marriage equality making it a movement unseen since the days of abolition.  After the debacle of same sex marriage in the state senate last year the gay community vowed to field candidates against all those who had opposed the measure.

The Trauma of War

By Michael Boyajian

When I was younger I used to watch war movies, mostly John Wayne stuff like his cavalry trilogy, his World War II forays and finally the Green Berets.  As kids we all played with our G.I. Joes dressing them up in Marine dress up or a frogman outfit.  All the neighborhood kids would run around the block playing army with toy guns.  How did we know how to play army?  Well, they were broadcasting the Vietnam War on television every evening.

School’s Out Forever

By Michael Boyajian

The pariah of school cuts to arts and music has raised its ugly head once again.  Those who use but one side of their brain have decided that only math and science count when it comes to financing our schools.  By corrupting and taking a hard right off Plato’s conjectured road they say to hell with art, music, philosophy and the humanities in general without giving thought for a minute to the simple modern world facts that those with musical skills excel in science and that without the art and literature of science fiction there would be no landing of a man on the moon.